How to Make Creative Public Relations Campaign

Creativity in PR campaigns must be carefully managed.

To a certain extent, all public relations campaigns have a creative aspect to them. Misguided creativity can be the downfall of a campaign and result in negative publicity, rather than help position your company or client favorably. A campaign's success depends on whether the creative approach fulfills a target audience's needs or expectations. Being creative can be productive in public relations, as long as the campaign does not miss its mark by being too clever.

Instructions

1. Establish the primary objective of the public relations campaign and ensure it is in line with your company or client's marketing objectives.

2. Determine what the "Big Idea" behind the campaign should be to help drive the creative concept. A well-thought-out "Big Idea" helps guide your creative process and ensures that the campaign's message is memorable and receives positive attention.

3. Produce and analyze marketing research on your target audience. Compare what the data from the research indicate to the objective of your public relations campaign, and allow for the research to help guide your creative process.

4. Cater the public relations campaign message to your audience and provide some incentive that appeals to the target.

5. Form the message of the campaign. Make a creative leap by transforming marketing research data into a clear and actionable piece of communication.

6. Determine how to stage the campaign's message. Ensure the message is relayed in a distinct way, grabbing and holding the target's attention. The campaign must aim to ultimately elicit a response or action from the target audience.

Tips & Warnings

• Use humor cautiously in public relations campaigns, as humor is relative and can be interpreted in many ways. Take cultural and societal sensitivities into account when forming a message. A vague or poorly constructed message can be misunderstood by a target audience and result in negative publicity.

References

• Handbook of Strategic Public Relations and Integration: Clark Caywood
• Parker, Wayne and Kent: Management of Creativity in the Public Relations Process